Sterling Stage
Joyless Toy Joy
RECEIVED Fri., Oct. 16, 2020
Dear Editor,
On October 11th, my fellow co-workers and I were fired from a local toy store, Toy Joy, after threatening to strike in protest of COVID-19 safety policies that we believed to be unsafe, both for ourselves and customers.
When we reopened the store back in May after the initial stay-at-home-order, everyone at the company agreed to abide by several somewhat strict safety precautions that customers and staff alike would adhere to. Recently, the owners/partnership team became concerned with the low sales numbers we’ve been seeing and rather suddenly decided that we needed to relax those precautions in order to improve profits; the staff was uncomfortable and concerned with some of the changes to our policies. We decided to organize and make it known in writing which precautions we would continue to enforce and which changes we would willfully disobey.
We presented our document to the partner team and made it clear that we were not going to budge, stating we would strike if necessary. We were told that if it came to that, we would lose our jobs. Seeing no other choice but to strike, we walked out together (there were only four people on staff at that particular store) as well as one staff member of another store who left in solidarity. That same day, we were each sent a communication which described our actions as “abandoning our positions” or quitting, which does not reflect the actual events that occurred.
At this point, none of us are interested in returning to our previous jobs where we felt taken advantage of and unsafe. My purpose in writing this is to make sure that the public is knowledgeable of the illegal and unconscionable actions taken against low income workers by this particular local business for the sake of profits.
Thank you.
On October 11th, my fellow co-workers and I were fired from a local toy store, Toy Joy, after threatening to strike in protest of COVID-19 safety policies that we believed to be unsafe, both for ourselves and customers.
When we reopened the store back in May after the initial stay-at-home-order, everyone at the company agreed to abide by several somewhat strict safety precautions that customers and staff alike would adhere to. Recently, the owners/partnership team became concerned with the low sales numbers we’ve been seeing and rather suddenly decided that we needed to relax those precautions in order to improve profits; the staff was uncomfortable and concerned with some of the changes to our policies. We decided to organize and make it known in writing which precautions we would continue to enforce and which changes we would willfully disobey.
We presented our document to the partner team and made it clear that we were not going to budge, stating we would strike if necessary. We were told that if it came to that, we would lose our jobs. Seeing no other choice but to strike, we walked out together (there were only four people on staff at that particular store) as well as one staff member of another store who left in solidarity. That same day, we were each sent a communication which described our actions as “abandoning our positions” or quitting, which does not reflect the actual events that occurred.
At this point, none of us are interested in returning to our previous jobs where we felt taken advantage of and unsafe. My purpose in writing this is to make sure that the public is knowledgeable of the illegal and unconscionable actions taken against low income workers by this particular local business for the sake of profits.
Thank you.
Barbara Burgess